SAIC said it will pay about $473 million to acquire the company as well as up to $20 million to maxIT shareholders after receiving certain tax refunds after closing. The deal is set to close next month.

MaxIT Healthcare is a health care IT consulting business working with commercial hospital groups and specializing in setting up electronic health record systems and IT strategy and planning, according to SAIC. SAIC said it plans to combine the business—which brings about 1,300 employees—with health care IT company Vitalize Consulting Solutions, which it bought less than a year ago.

With health care services widely thought to be a growth area—even as federal spending shrinks, several other contractors have made acquisitions in the arena. Falls Church-based General Dynamics, for instance, purchased Arlington-based health care IT business Vangent for nearly $1 billion last year, while Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin picked up Diamond Bar, Calif.-based QTC Holdings, which provides outsourced medical evaluation services to the Department of Veterans Affairs and other government agencies.

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